After decades of construction, the Ilisu dam is almost completed, Hasankeyf is nearing its inundation. Residents of this ancient settlement who are ineligible for relocation have nowhere to go. Merchants of the ancient Silk Road trading post have received eviction notices.

"If you destroy all this, you are in no way better than the Taliban in Bamiyan, where they destroyed the Buddha statues a few years ago," Eichelmann said. "It's a similar act of idiocy. It's crazy."

Yet, Vienna-based Andritz Hydro, the company overseeing the construction of the dam, is trying to justify their involvement.